IIlene's POV

After witnessing my father's death by the hands of my second brother, I have been running away from Frostford for two whole days now through the snowy forests and narrow mountain paths on my way to Veriates. With my pursuers only a few hours behind me, I haven't had a chance to really rest for these two days. With no supplies and no time to forage food felt like a luxury good. Thank the gods for the snow, without anything to drink I would have passed out a long time ago, not like I'm really far away from it now anyway.

But still, I continue to run. I am so close now, in the distance, I can already see the high towers of Veriates, the town and the stronghold of the knight's order. That's where my brother and my uncle are, I have to keep going.

I due to my exhaustion, I decided to take a shortcut through the forest, and hopefully, lose my pursuers. The problem with that was that the enemy had set up an ambush in the forest and by the time I noticed, the arrow from one of the enemies had already pierced my leg. I stumbled and fell down. With my last rest of strength, I managed to crawl behind a tree into cover. I looked at my leg, blood was gushing out of it. If I wanted to make it to Veriates I needed to stop the bleeding and escape somehow.

With me busy applying a makeshift bandage made out of a torn off piece of cloth, the soldiers had enough time to surrounded my position. In the shadows of the bushes and trees I could make out about ten, maybe eleven, I'm not sure. Then they came closer.

"Damn it! I was so close to reaching Veriates!" I screamed in my mind. Tears began to gather in my eyes.

As they were almost in range to grab me one of the soldiers spoke:"Hey, boss! We should have some fun with the princess before we kill her. What do you say? Hehehe."

"Sure, why not. She will die anyway, so let's have a bit of fun. We shall take turns.", the leader of the soldiers spoke.

Only now I knew how the women felt before they were raped, it was simply terrifying.

I drew my sword and held it in my trembling hands. I knew it would not help me. I was simply to exhausted but I sure will fight for my life. I won't die without a fight. I have to survive and tell brother and uncle what happened!

One of the soldiers drew his sword and moved closer. With a slash against the guard of my sword, he blew it away. Now I was truly left defenceless.

"Trash! Scum!" I yelled at them.

"Heh. A feisty one, I see. This is gonna be fun." One of the men drew closer to me, his hands already reaching out for my body. I closed my eyes as I resigned to my fate.

After a few moments of waiting still, nothing had happened. That hand never reached me. I opened my eyes when a  dark and cold voice could be heard from behind the men that were surrounding me.

"How unsightly! Simply disgusting!"

What I saw was a huge knight in an armour as black as a starless night. The eyes behind the helmet only two red dots burning with hatred.

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Connor had observed everything that happened inside the forest for quite some time. From the point on when the soldiers surrounded a wounded girl. At first, he thought about leaving them alone as it seemed they would kill the girl fast.

But instead, now they were about to rape the girl and then kill her. There were a lot of reason why Connor hated humans. But his hatred was the strongest for this particular kind of human as it was the initial reason why he came to hate them all as a whole.

In his old world, Connor had a younger sister. She had been a bright child, only fourteen years old when it had happened.

His sister had complained that she felt like someone was watching her all the time, but neither Connor nor his family gave too much thought.

But one night when she was returning from her cram school and she took a shortcut through the back alleys, a man grabbed her. He then proceeded to force her to the ground and covered her mouth with his hand. She could not fight the man and he raped her. When the police found her a day later, her clothes were torn and her eyes were lifeless. When the attacker was done he had strangled her. And when Connor thought it could not have gotten worse the police quickly proved him wrong. They could not even find the culprit. 

From the day Connor could think for himself he never really liked humans, he thought the way the way they behaved was disgusting, but he did love his sister. For some odd reason, she was different in his eyes.

From the day of her death, he has stopped caring about everything.

Now Connor was just standing and staring at the soldiers. Their expressions filled with fear due to the intense pressure emanating from him. With slow steps he started moving towards the one closest to him, his heavy boots sinking deep into to snow. The soldiers just stood there, frozen by his mere presence.

"Who the hell are you?!" The leader of the soldiers suddenly yelled, breaking the silence and bringing his men back to their senses.

"Me? You do not need to know, for you all shall be dead soon enough.", Connor spoke with a cold voice that sent shivers down the spine of the soldiers.

The leader of the soldiers gulped. "What are you doing? Quit just standing there! You there! Go and kill that bastard!" He pointed at one of the soldiers.

"Y..yes!" The soldier yelled as he charged at Connor with his sword ready to strike. Connor, on the other hand, didn't even move at all, he just stood there.

When the sword reached Connor's armour, a loud cracking sound was heard and the sword's blade broke in two. 

The soldier was dumbfounded at what happened "Ehh......?" He let out a sound, but before he could process what just happened, Connor had already grabbed his head with one hand and lifted him up in the air. Not one of the spectators dared to move, their expressions are frozen with shock.

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Using his inhuman strength Connor started to slowly crush the head of the man. He wanted it to be as painful as possible. The soldier scream of agony could be heard throughout the whole forest "H...help! Help! Help me! Please! Wahhh......."

Suddenly he stopped and shortly after a loud cracking sound was heard. His head had been crushed completely. After wiping off the blood, dripping from his black gauntlets, on the leather armour of the man he just killed, Connor tossed the body to the side. "Disgusting." The single word spoke by the cold voice pierced the very being of the humans before him. 

"M....m...monster.....demon!?" The soldiers finally regained themselves and started trembling as their gazed wandered back and forth between Connor and their former comrade's body.

Once again Connor started walking slowly towards them. This time, however, he did not want to dirty his hand anymore. He had yet to try out his blade, in the attack on the bandits he did not have the chance to do so since he wanted to assess the combat power of his subordinates. Slowly he drew his sword, extended his hand and focused his mind on the blade. Instantly a dark mist-like aura formed around his hand and began to surround the edge of his blade. The blade absorbed the mist and started glowing in an underworldly light, and with the light of the blade reaching the eyes of his opponents, their fear intensified even more.

"Well then, who is next?" Connor stared at the soldiers as the lights inside his helmet flickered fiercely.

"G....get him! What the hell are you standing around for!? There are only one man and eight of you!" The leader yelled loudly but desperation evidently filled his voice. If he could run he would but he instinctively knew that running was no option this time even if he was not consciously aware of it.

"Th.....that's right! No matter how strong he is, we have numbers on our side! Let's get him!"

The soldiers yelled as they charged at Connor. Once again the cold voice pierced them. "Fools."

Connor extended his sword arm towards the charging soldiers and said "Plague cloud." With the vocal command, the blessing granted to him by the god plague and diseases was summoned. It allowed him to coat his weapon with poison, as well as surround his whole body with the corrosive mist. While he travelled Connor had enough time to think, so he pondered over different approached concerning his new abilities. What he came up with was a way to use this particular blessing, not only for close range combat but also for mid-range.

As he muttered the words to activate his blessing, an ominous black cloud formed from the hand gripping his sword and moved fast toward the approaching soldiers.

"Ehh....what hell is that!?" The soldiers noticed the approaching cloud. Some tried to turn back as soon as they realised it was heading their way, but it was too late. The had reached them and they were engulfed. No one could see what was happening inside, but neither Connor nor the girl or the leader wanted to see what actually happened to the men. For Connor, it was enough to hear the terrifying screams as he patiently waited for them to die a slow and painful death.

After about a minute, the screams stopped and the black cloud disappeared. When the leader saw what little remained of his soldiers, he almost threw up. The wounded girl had averted her eyes from the scene long before, covering her ears with her hands while covering at the foot of the tree she previously used as cover.

The bodies had rotted, their skin was now none-existed. There was no blood at all, only horrifying remains of his former subordinates. He had seen many things during his career before, like an ice troll eating a live human but this was beyond everything. He could not comprehend what he had done to deserve having to see this scene before him and in his heart, he knew he was next. 

By now Ilene had opened her eyes again and watched the scene in front of her. she could not help but tremble like never before. Even when she was about to be raped, she was not this scared. But watching this black knight was like she was watching death itself.

Connor decided to finally bring this encounter to an end. he moved closer to the last remaining soldier. As the soldier noticed that the black knight had started to move again, he dropped his blade on the ground and threw himself in front of Connor, hoping to beg for his life was enough to be granted mercy.

Connor granted him mercy, just not the kind of mercy the man had wanted. With a swift swoop of his greatsword he cut the man in half, killing him instantly but without the unimaginable pain, the other had felt.

Now with every single one of them dead, Connor felt satisfied. He turned around and looked at the still trembling girl.

Ilene was covering in front of this knight, no this monster. She thought she was also going to be killed.

Like with the soldiers before Connor slowly made her way to her, instilling, even more, fear into to her. He crouched down next to her and spoke "Girl, there is supposed to be a town nearby. How far and in which direction is it?" His voice different from before, not necessarily kind but it was at least not this cold voice that pierced the very being of everyone it heard anymore.  

"Ehh?" Ilene looked at Connor.

"I am asking if there is a town nearby." Connor's voice sounded irritated.

Ilene started panicking. She surely did not want to anger the black knight before her, so she gathered her courage and spoke "Y..yes there is. It takes one hour by foot from here. This way." She pointed in the direction the town was. Her voice was wavering, and she was afraid if she didn't give the knight a satisfying answer she would end up like the men before her.

"Well, thank you for the information." Connor simply stood up and started walking in the direction Ilene had pointed at.

"Ww.....wait!" Ilene tried to stand but since her leg was still bleeding heavily she quickly went to her knees again, "Can you......Can you please take me there?" She asked.

"No." A simple answer came from Connor as he did not even turn around. Ilene was dumbfounded at how fast she was rejected.

"Wa....wait! Please! Take me there, I beg you! Please!" Ilene started to beg with tears flowing down her cheeks. Something like was to be expected, she had finally gotten her hopes up after being saved but now with such a firm and fast rejection, she was overwhelmed by emotions.

Still, Connor stopped for a second as he started thinking. Before he decided to intervene he heard the soldiers call her princess, which would most likely mean that she is the princess of the Azeria kingdom.

"Hm... Perhaps I can take you there..." 

Hearing these words gave Ilene a little hope, only for this hope to be crushed shortly after.

"...but that will come with a cost, princess." 

"Wha.....how can you even say that to a wounded girl asking for help? Are you even human?!" For a second she forgot in her anger what just had happened before her eyes and what this thing was capable of.

Connor stared coldly at Ilene. His gaze reminded her and she started to tremble again. Once again he approached her. " You are correct in your assumption that I am not one you disgusting humans.", Connor said coldly. "Now tell me, do you accept my offer or should I leave you here to die?"

"I....accept" 

"Good, now to take care of that wound." She never had the time to attempt to use first aid. Connor took the shaft of the arrow and yanked it out, blood started gushing out even more.

"Argh!!" Ilene screamed from the pain as Connor ripped off a part of his cape and wrapped it around her leg carefully.

After he was done he picked Ilene up with one hand, put her over his shoulder like a bag and started walking towards the city.

"Wh.....Wait! Wait, I can walk myself!" Ilene was screaming.

"Not happening! You are too slow." Connor's response was swift and decisive.

After an hour of continuous walking, they finally arrived at the gates of Veriates. Along the way, Connor switched to a piggyback ride, as Ilene was screaming loudly all the way until Connor gave in to this demand of her. After she finally settled down, she introduced herself as the only princess of the Azeria kingdom Ilene Riverfrost and when she asked for his name, in turn, he simply answered with Connor.

"Finally I have arrived at Veriates" Ilene said with teary eyes.

"I do not know why you are crying but let's go we are almost there."

"Um." Ilene nodded as she wiped away her tears.

>It seems I have picked up quite a nuisance< Connor thought.